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The Matra-Simca MS 670 was a Prototype race car that won the Le Mans 24 Hours 3 times in a row (from 1972 to 1974) as well as the World Manufacturers Championship twice (1973 and 1974).

The car was designed by Bernard Boyer and Jean-Louis Caussin. The long tail version, designed in '74 for Le Mans, was still called '670 B', 'B' being the distinctive letter of all Matras that were fitted with the Porsche 5-speeds gearbox.

The chassis was an aluminium monocoque, with fiberglass body. The engine was a 3-litres V12 at 60°, with aluminium block and head; bore was 79.7 mm and stroke 50.0 mm. Its sound was extremely loud.The version used in '74 for Le Mans was the 'MS 73', with a maximum torque of 320 Nm at 8400 rpm , reaching a maximum power of 450 HP at 10500 rpm. On the Mulsanne straight the car could top 320 kph. Brakes had Girling ventilated discs, all-round; in 1974, the rear brakes were moved inboard. Rims dimensions were 13” x 11” at front and 15” x 15” at rear.The car weighted 693 kg.

There were three '670 B's racing in Le Mans in 1974. Number 8 was driven by Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Bob Wollek and José Dolhem.

One privilege of being a distributor, is having access to new models before the general public. In the case of the Slot.it Matra, it has been sitting festering, calling to me from the work table, so today I decided to open one up and see what this little frog car, this "Simca" could do.

First glance showed me it has a wheelbase several mm longer than the McLaren and GT40, less guide-lead, (the length the guide is in front of the front axle), and more plastic behind the rear axle for "pendulum" weight. None of these made for a very promising performance.

First up, I just flattened and flared the stiff standard braid, loosened all 6 pod and both body screws 2 fulls turns, and threw it on the track, stock tyres, nothing glued, nothing trued; - and quickly got down to 5.65 seconds, which is anything but shabby on my track.

Back to the bench, swapped the rears for some glued and trued N22 rubber from a Group C Sauber, removed the "choke" from the motor in case it was fouling the underside of the body, adjusted the pod float a little, and back to track.

5.45 without trying hard, and it was wheel-standing out of the slot under acceleration out of the hairpin, smooth as butter.

Back to the bench Trued the front tyres - didn't bother to glue on for a quick test. Added 4 grams lead to the chassis between the front of the pod and the body post, and moved the magnet to the front position in the pod - just to trim the forward weight balance. Removed the front axle stoppers, fitted grub screws underneath and set the front ride height for full guide depth.

5.2 mistake and a 5.3 as it came out of the last corner on the outside 2 wheels, guide airborne and dropped back into the slot. 5.28 5.16 5.11

Note. The car hasn't been disassembled since the factory, the chassis hasn't been flattened... nothing fancy....

For those of you who don't know my track, is a 64 foot (19.5 metre) wood routed track, tinned-copper braided with 8 turns. No magnetic effect. The longest straight is 3.2 metres, and the next longest is just 2.2 metres. Anything that can do around 5 seconds for 12.5 feet average speed per lap is bordering on qualifying for the 100 metres at the next Olympics.